


Angels Fall Without You There

by RedLeaderfic



Category: Professional Wrestling, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Desert Island Fic, Dream Sharing, Hurt/Comfort, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Reunions, The Bucks Like To Swear, wrestling soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-09 05:26:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11662518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLeaderfic/pseuds/RedLeaderfic
Summary: Just before the G1 Kenny Omega invites the Bucks to blow off some steam with him at a video game con. Halfway through the return trip their private plane drops off radar.In a hotel room in Japan Kota Ibushi wakes up in the middle of the night from a dream he doesn't remember.These two events are connected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mithen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/gifts).



> For Mithen, who had me shipping these two long before I ever got to see an NJPW match. I hope I did right by them, happy RMSE Reveals Day!
> 
> (Thank you for the last minute hand holding, you know who you are!)

“Nick, wake up.”

Nick tried to pull away; he felt like he’d only just gotten to sleep and didn’t want to be too jet lagged when they landed. “Leave me ‘lone,” he muttered. “I’ll look at whatever it is later---”

“Nick, wake the fuck up right now.”

Nick’s eyes flew open. The only time he’d ever heard Matt’s voice like that was back when they were kids - the house next door had caught fire on a windy night and everyone had grabbed the pets and run out into street just in case. “What’s----” Matt was looking out his window, the nails of his left hand digging into Nick’s arm. They were scheduled to land in Tokyo at 6AM and while it was still dark outside the full moon was high and bright and more than enough to see a huge column of thick black smoke billowing from the engine. “Oh shit.”

“Put your seatbelt on.”

Nick nodded and fumbled with strapping himself back in when the plane took a hard bump that snapped his head back against the seat. He finally managed it just before the plane got rocked around again; across the aisle he saw Kenny’s eyes blink open in time for the lights to shut off and be replaced by a sickly green row of emergency lights. Kenny caught his eye and Nick hoped he didn’t look as completely scared shitless as he felt. “Better strap in, man. This, um. This looks like it’s not gonna be fun.”

Kenny nodded and buckled up, sitting back with both hands in a death grip on the armrests and his eyes wide. “You should be recording this.”

He _should_ be recording this. Nick got his phone out and panned the length of the private plane’s small cabin. “Welcome to this very super special extra edition of Being the Elite,” Nick said, keeping his voice low. “Normally we hold ourselves to a higher level of editing but we _may not_ get the chance here and let’s be real, you all love us and don’t care, we could put up any shit and you’d watch it.” The plane jolted again, hard enough that Nick knew he’d be on the floor if Matt hadn’t woken him up. “Oh shit, oh shit. _Anyway_ ,” Nick said, doing another pan and making sure to get shots of both Matt and Kenny, “we are on a private plane about---” Nick checked the time “---about four hours out of Honolulu on our way to the G1 from the Expo, which was _awesome_ and where one Kenny Omega is now the Street Fighter champion of Hawaii.” Nick zoomed in on Kenny, amazed at how much this was helping. “Smile for your adoring public, champ.” Kenny flashed a shaky grin to the camera. “Probably a good thing we auctioned off that goddamned trophy. Anyway….”

There was a loud bang from the back of the plane, followed by the plane shuddering and a low, metallic creak coming from under the floor. “That engine just fell off,” Matt said, and Nick handed him the phone to record out the window. Matt handed it back after a few seconds and Nick kept the phone turned selfie style. “So it’s _possible_ we may all be a little late and that is not our fault.” He turned to camera back to Kenny. “So you all better hold his spot ‘til we get rescued, ‘cause otherwise that is not cool at all.”

This time the plane lurched and the phone flew out of Nick’s hands. He was just able to reach it with his foot and scooted it back over; the screen was cracked but otherwise things looked good, it was still recording. “Okay, so,” he said, panning through the cabin against before letting the camera rest on Kenny. “So I don’t…I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to say right now? So I’m just gonna let this roll as long as I can. We love all of you so fucking much, thank you for buying all of our shit, make sure you go out and buy a fuckton more shirts once you watch this.”

“He’s trying to land us on the water. It’s right under us,” he heard Matt say.

“Oh, God.”

“It’s going to be okay, Nick,” Kenny said.

“See? Kenny said it is so that means we’re gonna be cool.” And Nick really did believe it, at least for that second. The creaking had grown into a loud roar Nick was sure was coming through on the video. He kept the camera trained on Kenny, glad to have something to focus on, and tried to ignore that he could smell smoke and how the floor was vibrating so hard he could feel it in his teeth.

“Do not let go of me for one fucking second, do you hear me?” Matt hissed into his ear. Nick nodded and concentrated on keeping the phone steady.

The first impact threw Nick against the restraints and clacked his teeth together. He wasn’t sure which one of them had screamed, him or Matt. Probably the both of them. The plane got airborne for a few seconds and then slammed back into the surface, skipping like a rock. One of the seats in the back wrenched free and went sliding down the aisle and a bunch of the overheads popped open. “Oh fuck, oh _fuck_.” Kenny had his eyes squeezed shut and his nails dug into the armrests, Nick didn’t think he’d even screamed once. If they were all going to die in a massive fireball Nick was glad at least one of them was going to go out looking cool as fuck.

There was one final, hard impact that rocked Nick back against the seat. He thought he might have even passed out for a second; the next thing he knew Matt was shaking him. “Get up _now_.”

Nick nodded and panned the phone around the cabin one more time, stopping in stunned horror when he saw the gaping cracks all up and down the back wall heading toward the tail of the plane, water already seeping in. “Oh my God.” Nick was running entirely on autopilot and hit post on the video without realizing it, blinking in confusion when the Successful Upload message popped up. He wished the engines had been as strong as the WiFi on this plane.

Matt had already undone his seatbelt for him and wrenched him to his feet by one arm. “Get moving, go!”

Nick shook off the last of the cobwebs and climbed over the mess in the aisle to get to Kenny, Matt right behind him. Kenny was still strapped in; Nick thought something must have flown by and clipped him, he was bleeding from his right temple and looked like he wasn’t sure where he was. Nick crouched down to help Kenny with his seatbelt, Matt standing behind him with one hand on his shoulder. The water was already up to their knees. “C’mon, c’mon man, we gotta go, we gotta _go_.” Nick pulled Kenny to his feet, taking a step back when Kenny fell against him. “Kenny, man, snap out of it please.”

Kenny blinked at him and nodded, reaching up for the overhead, Nick guessed for his title out of habit. Matt had enough and pulled Kenny back. “I want mine too but we do not have time for that, okay?” To Nick’s immense relief that seemed to snap Kenny out of it, the next time he looked around Nick could tell he knew just how fucked they all were. Before they could come up with a plan a horrible, metallic creaking filled the cabin. Nick felt Matt’s hand latch hard around his wrist just before he turned around to see the whole tail section snap off. The wall of onrushing water shoved him backward and off his feet, Matt’s grip the only thing keeping him from crashing into the back wall. Kenny smashed into the seat next to him, ragdolling into the aisle; Nick reached out for him under the water so that they’d surface at the same time. Kenny threw one arm around Nick’s neck, coughing and sputtering and Nick realized he had no idea if Kenny could swim. “Stay with us, man.” Kenny nodded against his shoulder, still coughing. “We all gotta get out of this, you gotta stay with us.”

The water was up to their necks now and still rising. “I am gonna send Mom the biggest thank you card for making us take all those swim lessons,” Matt said. Nick laughed. It felt so great to laugh. Matt caught both of their eyes. “Okay, okay. Deep breaths on three. One. Two.”

On three Nick took the deepest breath he could and started swimming for the hole in the back of the cabin, wishing he could keep a hand on both Matt and Kenny and still swim. Just when they were almost at the hole it seemed to close up, the walls surrounding them. Nick realized the broken section of plane must have gone nose up, trapping them all like bugs under a glass. Matt got his attention and pointed down and okay, they had to dive to get out now. Nick could do that. He looked back to reassure himself that Kenny was still with them before pushing off on one of the seats after Matt.

The swirl of cross currents at the bottom of the cabin hit Nick like a chair to the face. By the time he’d pushed through it his lungs were burning; the water was cold and Nick felt his hands going numb. He didn’t know which direction to swim in to get to the surface, either it was too dark or he was down too far to see any light to swim toward. Kenny wasn’t behind him anymore and Nick felt his throat start to close up from panic. He reached out blindly and felt something brush his arm; he grabbed for it, not caring what it was, and sobbed in relief when Matt pulled him up to the surface.

Matt draped him over some debris and Nick tried to get air back into his lungs. “Where’s Kenny?” he said, not able to keep the hysteria out of his voice. “He was behind me but I lost him, do you have him?” The moonlight was just bright enough for Nick to see all the blood drain from Matt’s face. Matt looked around and Nick did too but there was too much wreckage floating everywhere. Matt took a deep breath, preparing to dive again, and Nick made a panicked grab for his shoulder. “We’ll both go, let me---”

Matt shook him off. “Don’t you dare fucking move from that thing.”

“But I’m a good swimmer, I---”

“ _Don’t. Move_.” And with that Matt dove back under the surface.

Nick clutched onto his broken piece of the - what was this, the wing? - his broken piece of the wing and tried to count the seconds. Something in the floating tail section burst into flames and Nick flinched away from the heat, not daring to move away. The nose of the plane slowly disappeared under the water; Nick looked but he couldn’t see anyone else, not either of the pilots or their flight attendant, nothing but debris and endless stretches of black water.

Nick had lost track of how much time had passed. “C’mon,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Matt please, c’mon.” Nick pressed his face against the cold surface of the wing. He couldn’t keep looking at all the nothing surrounding him. “Guys, please. Don’t leave me alone out here. I can’t do this alone, please don’t leave me alone.”

From the corner of his eye Nick saw something moving on the surface of the of the water, something dark. He grabbed for it and wound up grabbing a handful of Matt’s hair just as he surfaced with a huge, desperate gasp for air. Nick kept his brother’s head above water as Matt heaved Kenny’s limp body over the wing. “Is he okay?” Nick said, not even pretending any more that he wasn’t freaking out.

Matt nodded, checking on Kenny once before draping himself over the wing too, shaking with exhaustion. “Yeah, he’s---” Matt needed a few more gulps of air to get words out. “He’s breathing, he’s just out. He got caught up on stuff down there, he was still conscious when I found him. He’ll be okay.”

“Don’t you ever fucking scare me like that again,” Nick said, kissing Matt on the top of his head. He grabbed onto Matt’s shirt and wound his other hand through Kenny’s hair to keep them both close. They floated there in silence for a few minutes, until Nick felt the chill begin to seep into his bones. “What do we do now?” Nick asked.

As if to answer him whatever it was burning in the tail section picked that moment to explode. The blast knocked Nick back underwater for a second and when he came back up he was relieved that Matt and Kenny were still on the wing. Matt was staring into the flames and Nick put Kenny on his back, knowing what Matt was going to say before he said it. “We are getting away from _that_.”

There was another blast and that was all Nick needed to get moving, swimming blind in the opposite direction of the flames. Kenny outweighed him and made it hard to swim but he could see Matt struggling too just from sheer exhaustion. When the wreckage was far enough in distance for it to feel safe Nick stopped to tread water for a second and catch his breath, Matt trying to do the same but almost slipping beneath the water before Nick held his head up. “I can’t keep this up, man..”

Nick wasn’t feeling so hot himself. He scanned the horizon as best he could in the moonlight and noticed something not quite…right. “I see something.”

“It’s too dark to see anything.”

“I see something.” Nick situated Kenny more securely and started swimming for that spot on the horizon. “C’mon, follow me.”

Kenny started coming to about half way there and Nick was incredibly relieved until Kenny grabbed onto him in disoriented panic. “Whoa, man, don’t do that!” They almost both went under but Nick managed to get himself untangled just in time. “Relax, relax, we’re good. Well, not good, but alive. Which is good right now.” Kenny was staring past him at the burning wreckage of the plane still visible behind them until Nick forced him to stop. “You gotta hold off on freaking out for a little bit, okay? I mean, I’m not doing great at it either but we gotta try.” Nick saw Kenny’s jaw go tight as he nodded and Nick felt a little better. Once Kenny Omega was determined about something there was nothing that could stop him. “Can you swim? Just hold onto me if you can’t keep up.”

Kenny narrowed his eyes like he was taking that as a dare. “I can keep up,” he said, rolling his shoulders the way he would getting ready for a match. Nick wrapped one arm tight around him for a second, then looked around to check on Matt before starting back up.

Every muscle in Nick’s body was screaming when he finally felt something solid beneath his feet. He managed to get just far enough so that when he collapsed he did it with his face mostly out of the water; he felt someone, he thought maybe Kenny, drag him further up the beach before dropping him back on his face. Nick picked his head up and spotted Matt stumble up onto the beach too before falling over backwards, and Kenny trying to catch his breath next to him, and Nick was so happy he could finally pass out in peace.

When Nick woke up it was still dark, so he knew he hadn’t been out long. He spotted Kenny sitting at the edge of the beach staring out at the water and Nick dragged himself over to join him. Without even looking Kenny put one hand on his shoulder like he wanted to reassure himself Nick was real. “Let me see your face, man,” Nick said, turning Kenny’s chin to the side to take a look at the cut on his temple. “Probably gonna have a badass scar to remember this all by,” he said after reassuring himself it had stopped bleeding. “Where’s Matt?”

Nick thought there was a quick flash of a grin from Kenny at that, although it was too dark to be really sure. “He’s making a survey.” Nick was too tired to question what that meant. Kenny rubbed both hands over his face. “I’m so sorry I asked the two of you to come to that con with me.”

“If you hadn’t you’d still be under the water, don’t you even fucking _think_ shit like that again,” Nick said. Just thinking about that alternate universe made Nick want to throw up, he and Matt waiting for Kenny to check in with them and it never happening. “I couldn’t take that and I don’t think Matt could either.” Nick thought Kenny was about to get a little emotional over that but he got it under control and just ruffled Nick’s hair instead.

“What couldn’t I take?” Matt said, coming up behind them.

“Oh cool, we can settle this now. Hey Matt, if you’d known the plane was going down while we were still in Hawaii you’d still have gotten on, right?”

“Were the two of you still getting on? Then fuck yeah, of course.” Matt flopped down next to Kenny. He shined a light in Kenny’s face, making Kenny laugh and try to push him away. “C’mon! I want to see if you’re crying over how much we love you or not.”

“Is that _your phone_?” Nick said, wondering if he was hallucinating. “How did it make it through all that?”

“This waterproof case is the shit!” Matt said, a delighted smile on his face. “I’m gonna leave, like, a one-thousand-star review on Amazon once we get rescued. If the solar charger made it through we’re gonna be in good shape. I mean, there’s no signal, we’re in the middle of nowhere, but it’s better than nothing.”

Nick didn’t know if he could still see the plane burning far away on the horizon or if he was just imagining it. “How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Longer than two days, I’m guessing,” Kenny said.

Nick and Matt locked eyes and Nick hugged one arm around Kenny’s shoulders. They were going to miss some bookings and the G1 finals were always an event but Kenny had been living and breathing for this. Hell, half the reason they’d jumped at the chance to go to the con with him was because good _God_ , had Kenny needed to blow off some of that obsessive stress. “They’re gonna be looking for us. We’re famous. And if that video got through at least they have some idea where we are, it’s not like we all disappeared into the night. You’ll miss the first day, tops. And we when show up it’ll be so fucking miraculous they’ll jump you through to the finals, it’ll be awesome.”

Matt stood up and aimed the phone at Kenny. “Nick’s right. They’re gonna make a movie about this, it’s gonna be that ridiculous when you win the whole thing. Come on, tell Ibushi what you’re gonna do, he’s probably thinking he’s got an easy ride.”

At first Nick thought Kenny wasn’t going to accept the transparent attempt to cheer him up but after a moment he motioned for Matt to give him the phone. “Make sure you’ve got the dark vision filter on, it’ll look all badass,” Nick said.

Kenny took a deep breath and Nick saw him get into that groove, the one that always made the hair on his arms stand up. Watching Kenny Omega talk was one of Nick’s most favorite things in the world. “Well, Ibu-tan,” Kenny said, putting that tone to his voice he always used when talking about Ibushi lately. “As you probably know by now, things have changed. That beautiful ending we’d both been hoping for, and I know you were hoping for it just as much as I was, us meeting in the finals, it may not happen that way but that doesn’t mean you get to break your promise to me. Get to the finals. Win, if you can. Show me why you came back. I will catch up with you and I want you to be worth all the struggle and pain I will put myself through to get there.” He held the phone up to pan across the tree line. “This may look like I’ve taken an extended vacation in paradise but I will spend every second training for that day, and I do not break my promises. Make sure you don’t break yours.”

He handed the phone back to Matt, who frowned at it before sighing and looking around. “Well, maybe there’s somewhere on this island that gets a signal. You never know these days, that was too cool not to send out.” Matt gave him a hand up. “C’mon, let’s get off the beach at least. We gotta find somewhere to sleep.”

Kenny looked a little dubious at that. “Don’t worry,” Nick said, “Me and Matt have watched so much survival shit on YouTube, we’ve basically been training our whole lives for this moment. I bet we can even make a raft or something to get off the island sooner. It’s all gonna work out, you’ll see.”

***

When he was sure Nick and Matt were asleep Kenny found the precious phone and crept away, finding a spot further back in the trees where he could keep them both in sight but not risk waking them up. He had never hurt so much in his life. Everything, his head, his neck, his back, every muscle, inside and out there wasn’t a part of him that didn’t ache. If he let himself fall asleep he knew he would be too stiff to move once he woke up, even if he hadn’t been too shot through with adrenaline to think about sleeping in the first place. And closing his eyes brought it all back, that moment the cold water closed over his head. His mouth still tasted like salt water. He didn’t think that taste would ever go away.

Kenny felt his hands start to shake and woke up the phone, turning on the video camera. “Ibushi,” he said to the screen, drawing out the syllables. He marveled a little at how just that was enough to calm his racing heartbeat. “I know we’ve already talked tonight,” he continued in Japanese, “but that video was for the world and this one is only for you.” He leaned against the tree, wincing when that pressed against a sore spot on his back, and stared into the clear, star-filled sky. Mosquitos and the horror lurking behind his eyes aside it was a beautiful night. “I don’t think anyone is going to find us,” he said. “They’ll look for a while, I’m sure. They might even find what’s left of the plane, but that’s where they’ll stop. They’re not going to keep looking for this little patch of nothing and they’re certainly not going to find us on it, I think we both know that.”

Kenny pushed his hair out of his face, the words coming out faster than he’d intended. “But I know something else. I know _this_ is not how our story ends. You didn’t come back to me after years of silence for such an unsatisfying conclusion, I will not believe that. I won’t.” Kenny tapped one finger against the phone case. “Do you remember when I told you why I came to Japan? I told you I that I knew I had to find you, that it was our destiny to fight. I still believe that and despite everything, I’ve always thought you did too. So prove me right. I came all the way across the world to find you. If you really did come back to end our story, Ibushi, this time you’re going to have to find me.”

He stared back up into the night sky, one arm wrapped around his knees.

“Find me.”

***

Kota woke so suddenly he felt light-headed. He sat on the edge of the bed and tried to remember what he’d dreamed but the harder he tried the faster it slipped away from him. Finally he shook it away, or tried to. It was still dark outside, at least a couple of hours before his wake-up call, and Kota tried to go back to sleep. There was too much to do today to prepare for the G1, he couldn’t face it all full of nerves _and_ sleep deprived.

He lasted less than a minute before the restlessness that woke him had him on his feet and pacing across the room. His nerves were getting the better of him, that was all. Perhaps leaping back into something as high profile as the G1 had been too much, it may have been a better idea to ease himself in. Kota tried hard not to show it but he’d always had problems with his nerves before big matches, he might have been too optimistic about his being able to face this.

An alert on his phone chimed. Kota froze and stared at it from across the room as if it were poisonous, like if he touched it the phone would turn into a spider and start skittering up his arm. He didn’t know why. Another alert chimed, then another, and Kota felt himself flinch. He didn’t know who would be contacting him at this hour. Someone in America, maybe. He didn’t know who would be doing that.

Kota told himself he was being ridiculous and picked up the phone, ignoring how that sent his heart into his throat. He picked a message at random and saw it was from Shinsuke, of all people. There were a few from him. _Are you all right? Call me._

Kota threw the phone on the bed and backed away. He raked his hands through his hair and realized he was pacing again. This had to stop. Kota threw on some clothes and grabbed his room key; this was just nervous energy and that could be worked out of his system easily enough.

He opened his door and spotted a small cadre of press camped out in the hallway where anyone trying to leave would have to pass them, both Japanese and some foreign, all of them looking like they’d just dragged themselves out of bed and dressed against a timer.

Naomi was crying.

They spotted him the instant after he did them and surged forward like a smartphone wielding hydra. Kota slammed the door shut and put his back to it, making sure every lock was shut and took a relieved breath that the press corps were mostly too well-trained and polite to pound on the door at this hour. Kota spotted his discarded phone lying on the middle of the bed and felt something crystalize deep in his chest. Whatever sense had woken him settled into clear-eyed dread as he cradled the phone in his hands, hesitating for one last second. He still didn’t know what was the source of what was going on.

What he was sure about was that it wasn’t a what at all. It was a who.

The texts were somehow what he’d expected, increasingly panicked concern from seemingly everyone in America who had his number: _Did you see? Are you awake? Don’t check twitter, just call me. Don’t watch the video. Don’t click any links. Please call me. I know it’s early but call me as soon as you get this. Call me. Call me._

Despite the almost frantic advice not to Kota opened twitter and watched the number on his mentions tick up in morbid fascination. This he skimmed; the messages were mostly from Western fans and he let himself use his so-so English as a reason to ignore it.

When he stopped scrolling he found a link to Nick Jackson’s Facebook sitting in the middle of his feed. _Don’t click any links._

Kota clicked.

 _Welcome to this very super special extra edition of Being the Elite._ Kota forced himself through the video once and then immediately replayed it, this time focusing on making out the words behind Jackson’s rambling blind terror. _....So I’m just gonna let this roll as long as I can. We love all of you so fucking much._

Kota lost track of how long he sat there replaying the video. Long enough to memorize every second of it. Long enough for Kenny white knuckling in fear at the very end to sear into his retinas so he saw it everywhere.

 _Four hours out of Honolulu._ He opened up the browser and searched for whatever would have been under them there. Judging from the autofill it was a popular search. Kota zoomed in until a seemingly unbroken field of blue filled his entire screen.

It suddenly registered that the sun was up and had been for a while. Kota put the phone down beside him and sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes closed.

Kota picked his phone back up and sent a message not to any of his concerned friends – he did feel a little guilty about that, but he didn’t have time for that now – but to a friend he’d met years ago in Australia. _I’m sorry, I know it’s early. Do you still know the man you told me the story about the last time you were in Japan?_

The minutes scraped by like sandpaper. _Sure. Why?_

_Could you please pass me his number?_

_He can be a hard man to get a hold of. And he doesn’t come cheap_

_I will manage it. Tell him there is no price_

The next message was the desired number. _Here you go. Then: Look not prying, but are you alright? I can guess what this is about, made the news_

Everyone was so worried about him.

_I will be._


	2. Chapter 2

G1 would go on as scheduled, of course. More subdued, more hushed tones, no formal press conference to start things but no one ever gave serious thought to postponing on such short notice and Kota didn’t know why people kept asking him if he’d disagreed with that decision or getting puzzled when he answered “Of course not.” Or when he’d mention how much he was looking forward to it starting. People were angling for answers from him and he wasn’t sure what it was they all wanted him to say.

He was becoming very clear on what they _didn’t_ want him to say, though. Kota remembered how the whole press room had hushed that morning when he’d said he planned on winning his block and if Kenny couldn’t get back in time to win a place in the finals, he would win the G1 and challenge him instead at Wrestle Kingdom. At first he’d thought the shocked reaction had been because it was such a baldly ambitious thing to say.

Kota supposed he did know what they wanted him to say. He just didn’t understand why they were so determined to have him say something he knew was untrue.

He stared at Naito across the ring. They would know he was right soon enough.

Kota remembered the dream he’d had the night before, where he and Kenny had been tagging again, or maybe were tagging then, it had been a DDT ring although Kenny looked the way he did now. Opponents Kota couldn’t make out had Kenny down on the far side of the ring, working him over. Kota remembered pacing the apron, anxiety twisting his stomach as the seconds ticked by, for reasons known only to dream logic not able to cross through the ropes and help him. For a moment the dream, Kenny in pain reaching for him, superimposed over his reality with such clarity Kota felt a sick cold sweat break out over his arms.

Maybe more than just a moment; Kota blinked and Naito was right in his face, doing that mocking taunt of his. “Where were you just now?” Naito whispered to him, so low even the people at ringside wouldn’t hear.

“I’m not sure,” Kota responded in the same low voice.

Naito stepped back and rubbed his hands together, a slow, eager smile on his face. Kota was glad the first match was against him. He’d been one of the few on the roster over the past days who hadn’t treated Kota like he’d alternately been a bad omen or made of porcelain. “This is going to be a fun tournament.”

***

Kota blinked awake, slowly becoming aware that the sun was already up and he’d overslept his wake-up call. Or perhaps not; when he fumbled for his phone Kota found that he hadn’t missed any messages. He supposed it had only been a matter of time until the higher ups made the call to quietly stop scheduling him for the morning interviews.

Maybe it would have been a good idea to sign a contract with the company after all. He hadn’t wanted to commit to anything like that until after the G1, if he’d been able to withstand that grind it would be a good sign he’d be fine with the normal schedule, but it was too late to change that decision now.

Kota put that worry aside, he had enough crowding his mind without inviting in anything new. He was doing well. As long as he kept winning that would resolve itself.

He lay back down, realizing a little ruefully that sometime since the start of all this he’d gone back to sleeping on one side of the bed. Kenny would be very smug when he found out he’d managed to ruin all the work Kota had put into breaking that particular habit over the past two years.

He wished he hadn’t woken up. Kota’s dreams hadn’t been very peaceful as of late but this one was so close Kota felt like he could still sink back into it. While they had been tagging Kota would always have trouble sleeping the night before big matches – Kenny of course slept like a rock because he saved all that energy to leave in the ring but Kota had never learned that trick. In the dream he’d been back in one of those early nights, watching Kenny sleep beside him and trying hard to stay quiet, winding Kenny’s curls around his fingers to calm himself down. It was the only thing he’d ever found that quieted those pre-match nerves.

Kota closed his eyes and held onto the peace of that dream as long as he could, remembering watching how the rising sun had brought out the angles of Kenny’s face.

He hoped Kenny was sleeping somewhere now with the sun on his face.

“Soon,” he said to the empty room, not knowing he was going to speak until the word was out. “A little longer. You asked a promise from me. If I keep it you should give me one in return you know, and this is a very small one.”

Kota could almost hear someone else’s breathing in the room. “Just wait for me a while longer.”

***

Kenny woke up to find the sun already high and hot. When he tried to stretch pain lanced out from the small of his back, probably from him falling asleep sitting up – falling asleep sitting up _again_ – surprising him enough that he tipped over hard onto his shoulder instead of managing to push himself up. It would have been bad enough even without Matt sitting a few feet away laughing at him. “Are you going to help me or not?”

Matt reached out and pushed him back up, still laughing. Kenny managed to sit against the tree again and winced as he _very carefully_ stretched his back out this time. He felt like he was aging a year every night he spent here. “Where’s Nick?”

“Fucking around. He won’t be far.” Matt handed him half the mango he’d been cutting up with the pocketknife Nick by some miracle had managed to keep on him through everything.

“Half’s not enough for you.”

“Not enough for you either, but we’re going to have to make do for right now. It rained too hard the past two days to get more.”

“Oh, had it? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Okay, _fine_ ,” Matt said, putting on an affronted air. “Maybe the camp isn’t completely perfect yet, I get it. We’re working on it. At least it’s so hot we dried out pretty quick.”

“How are we on water?”

“That we’re actually doing okay on!” That had been the biggest worry that first day they’d taken stock of where they’d all been stranded; the only standing water they’d managed to find was a small pool that was mostly mud and algae. If a few bottles from the plane hadn’t washed up on the beach with some other debris Kenny wasn’t sure they would have made it through the first two days. “The water collector thing we rigged up actually held together okay, kudos to Nick’s YouTube guy. Gotta leave him a comment when we get back to somewhere with service. At least all the rain was good for something.” Matt sliced off another piece. “So why do we keep finding you sleeping out here in the trees, anyway? Nick gets spooked when we wake up and you’re not with us. What’s wrong, do we smell?”

“Yes,” Kenny said, making Matt laugh again. He shook his head. “I’m having trouble getting to sleep, there’s no point in keeping the two of you up with me. It’s not like any of us are sleeping great as it is.”

“I don’t know, you were down pretty hard this morning. Me and Nick have been up for hours already.”

“You should have woken me up, then.”

Matt waved that away. “Nah. I’ll wake you up when you’re having a bad dream, not a good one. I’m glad at least one of us can get through the night, God knows I haven’t managed it yet.”

Kenny knew Nick was having trouble – for all Matt’s complaining he did stay close and Nick had woken him up more than once – but he hadn’t realized Matt was too. “How bad?”

“Dreams about looking for Nick, dreams about looking for you. Pretty sure we’re all dreaming some dark shit right now.” Matt cocked his head to the side. “Do you always dream in Japanese?”

Kenny ran his tongue over his chapped lips. “Why?”

Matt shrugged. “You’ve been talking in your sleep a little bit. I’m just curious. We’ve crashed in the same hotel room a bunch of times and I’d never noticed before.”

“Sometimes.” Much more lately, although he didn’t want to admit that. “Stop watching me sleep.”

“I will keep tabs on you and Nick all I want. Besides, you keep hoarding the flashlight, it’s not like there’s anything else I can do if I’m up in the middle of the night.”

Kenny found the phone lying beside him. “I know, I keep stealing it,” he said, handing it back.

“Keep it man, I’m just busting your chops. Whatever gets you through the night, right? I’m due for an upgrade anyway.” He cleaned the knife off as best as he could and folded it up. “I’m a little jealous you’re getting some good dreams, whatever language they’re in. Not as jealous as you and Nick are of my fabulous tan while the two of you are lobster men, but still.”

“I _am_ a little jealous about that.” Kenny had never known a sunburn could hurt so much in his life.

“I can’t help being the special one.”

“This is why we’re going to eat you first.”

Kenny didn’t like the way Matt smiled at that, ducking his head so his hair hid his face for a second. “Yeah, well. If it comes to that, you know….”

“Don’t.”

Kenny let out a relieved breath when Matt backed all the way off. “Who do you think’s winning so far?”

Kenny drummed his fingers against his knees. “Okada, obviously,” he said. “I don’t know who from the other block. Naito, maybe.”

Matt quirked an eyebrow up, like he was saying _Uh huh_. “I wonder if they subbed someone in for you.”

“No one would _dare_. A sixteen point cap works just as well as eighteen.”

“Maybe they threw Chase in there. Gotta keep up the Bullet Club numbers and all that.”

“That is not funny. He would die.”

“You think they did something really maudlin for us?”

Kenny winced. “I hope not.”

“Yeah you do. You’d love it if they made a big production over you.”

“Not like that.”

“You know Ring of Honor did, though. I bet they’re hawking memorial DVDs right now. We’re going to be chasing that money down forever. They better have picked a good fucking song for our video package.”

“I know you’re trying to cheer me up.”

Matt shrugged. “I am and I still will be really pissed off if we didn’t get an awesome tribute.” He grinned. “You think Cornette’s dancing on our graves yet?”

“Oh my God.”

“ _Right_?” Matt was so gleeful that it really did lift Kenny’s mood. “I hope your guy comes through for you,” Matt said, a little more quietly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

This time Matt did say, “ _Uh huh_ ” out loud. “So what were you dreaming about? I wanna live vicariously.”

Kenny closed his eyes as the warmth of Kota pressed against him washed back over him, almost like the pain from a phantom limb. “I don’t remember.” He was almost glad for the sunburn because it meant Matt couldn’t see the flush from that.

He could tell Matt thought he was full of it but he didn’t press. “Whatever you say, man.” He nodded to the phone. “C’mon, film me and Nick while we check out the other side of the island. We’ll make another episode out of it. The rain one was actually pretty fun, it was like the old on the roads.” Matt helped him up. “Let’s find out where my brother ran off to and scare the crap out of him. That’s always a great way to start things off.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special Note: while this universe does have its downsides, on a happy note Fale's had too much on his mind to bother Daryl. :D

Kota had found a quiet room to prepare backstage when the door very slowly creaked open. He watched as someone – he assumed it was Takahashi, although he couldn’t be sure – made the LIJ’s little cat mascot look like it was peeking into the room. He was trying to remember what it was named when whoever was puppeteering pushed it through the cracked door and quickly slammed the door shut behind it.

Kota approached it, looking around himself now, and finally picked it up. It had a little folded note taped to its paw, Kota’s name on it in what he recognized as Naito’s messy handwriting, and when he unfolded it he read _Bullet Club’s all trying to kill each other. Thought you’d be interested._

Kota dropped the cat, apologizing out of reflex, and rushed out the door. He didn’t have to go far before he could hear the shouting; he turned another corner and saw a small crowd clustered around the Bullet Club’s open locker room door. It wasn’t unusual for Bullet Club members to be at each other’s throats but everyone had been waiting for the explosion. There had even been a betting pool going, although most seemed a little embarrassed to admit to it, at least. He spotted Naito at the door and was waved over, a clearly delighted _Would you look at **this** shit_ look on his face.

Kota got to the door just in time to see Cody Rhodes land a hard roundhouse punch right in the face of the newest member, the Englishman with the umbrella and the hard to pronounce name. The one Kenny had brought in himself, the last member of that shattered inner circle. Scurll had shown up on the first day of the G1 despite not being scheduled to be there for weeks, surprising everyone, but Kota hadn’t known Rhodes was in the country too. He wondered who had bet that in the pool.

Scurll went down hard and Rhodes stood over him, screaming into his face; Kota couldn’t catch all the English but he didn’t need to, the way the other members were standing around uncomfortable, not looking at each other but arrayed behind Rhodes told him what he needed to know. The fight had drained out of Scurll and he let Rhodes shout at him for a few more seconds before Rhodes was satisfied, straightening up to see they’d attracted a crowd. “Get the fuck out, show’s over!” he said, and that Kota understood perfectly.

Understood, just wasn’t very inclined to listen to him. The crowd at the door slowly drifted away around him as Kota watched the continuing drama; Owens tried to help Scurll up but got pushed away, so it didn’t seem like Scurll had been formally kicked out, at least. Rhodes ignored Scurll and stormed out through an interior door, Tama, Yujiro and Owens accompanying him. Fale seemed to be about to follow when he spotted Kota lingering by the door. “Don’t look at me like that, man,” Fale said, shaking his head and not meeting Kota’s eyes.” Kota wondered how he was looking at Fale. “It had to happen.”

Kota finally did leave, moving down the hall and watching the clock on the wall tick off fifteen minutes. Then he walked over to medical room and took an ice pack from one of the carts.

It took a little searching but Kota finally found Marty Scurll in a tucked away room the trainers had taken over, sitting on a bench and sobbing into his hands. He startled when Kota sat down beside him, quickly trying to wipe his face. Kota just hand him the ice pack, gesturing to his own face and Scurll pressed the pack to his rapidly swelling shut eye. “Thank you.” Kota sat back against the wall and gave him time to compose himself. “I’m sorry I can’t…my Japanese is still bad.”

“We’ll try,” Kota said. His understanding of English had gotten fairly good anyway, just finding the right words to say would be the challenge. “What was all…that?” he said, gesturing towards the hallway beyond the door.

“Oh, Cody’s decided he’s leader now,” Scurll said, bitterness twisting the words. “Because ‘Someone has to be,’ after all. I told him we already had a leader and well, you see how that worked out for me.”

“He will kick you out.”

His lips curled into a snarl. “I don’t _care_.”

Maybe he could like this Marty Scurll. “Good answer.”

Scurll put his head back into his hands. “They found debris,” he said, his voice cracking. Kota hadn’t heard that but he hadn’t exactly been keeping with the news. “Debris and a body. It’s been barely any time and everyone’s already given up, no one’s looking. It’s been a week since anyone’s even said the word rescue, it all switched to recovery after two days. I don’t understand. Everyone’s moved on already.”

“It’s not Kenny.” Scurll turned to look at him, forgetting the icepack, and Kota put it back over his eye. “The body. It’s not him.”

Scurll shook his head. “How are you so sure?”

Kota stared at the wall for a few long seconds. “Because I would know.” He’d been afraid to say those words out loud, even just to himself. He’d worried once the words were said the conviction behind them would crumble but he’d found the opposite turned out to be true. “Other two, I don’t know,” he cautioned, “but Kenny. Him I’m sure. I think they would be together, though. They wouldn’t leave him.” He glanced at Scurll, faint embarrassment creeping up on him. “I know everyone….” he said, letting the words trail off as he tapped his forefinger against his temple. “Always have, I think, but now….” He shook his head, wishing he could put into words how deep into his bones this feeling went. “I would _know_.” He looked at Scurll. “You agree with them?”

Scurll shook his head again, his eyes wide. “No.” Kota suspected it was less because Scurll actually had such faith in his intuition than that he desperately needed to believe it but he was willing to accept that. “I’ve been doing this since I was fifteen years old,” Scurll said, staring off into the distance. “That’s more than half my life and this past year it all finally came together. Like magic, it all finally paid off and it wasn’t because I’d started doing anything different, it was because I fell in with those three.” He let out a soft, bitter laugh. “Literally the shirt on my back,” he said gesturing to his Villain Club shirt. “Poor Nick was so scared. It’s all I hear when I close my eyes, it’s all I dream about.”

“I dream too,” Kota said. That was the first time he’d said that out loud, too.

“What’s keeping you up at night?”

“Different things.” He’d had the tag dream again the night before, with the same formless opponents holding Kenny in the middle of the ring so Kota couldn’t reach him, and he’d woken up in pitch darkness not willing to go to back to sleep. “But not always bad things.”

“I’d be more than willing to trade those for a few of mine.” Scurll was quiet for a few moments. “They’d invited me to go with them,” he said, his voice soft. “I had a booking in England right before and it was too much flying for me.”

“Lucky.”

Marty shook his head. “No.” He raked his hands through his hair. “I blew off bookings in Mexico to come here early and I’ve never done anything like that before. I just…I felt like if I was here, then the three of them would come walking through the door. Because Kenny would never miss this, it’s all he’s been talking about. It’s been getting obnoxious,” he said, a genuine laugh at that. “That whole day I was waiting, waiting, waiting. What’s that called, magical thinking? I’ve got that instead of blood in my veins right now. Every conspiracy theorist on the internet is tweeting me and I want to check out each sighting, because what if they’re true? And I can’t go home because if I do then it’s admitting something, then it’ll be real.”

“I have a friend,” Kota said, the word coming out slowly. Apparently this was the conversation for confessions. “A friend who knows a pilot. Military. Supposed to be very good.” Scurll looked puzzled. “I hired him. He’s searching right now. Four hours out of Honolulu.” Kota felt that faint embarrassment creep back again. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he said, not wanting to imagine what everyone would be saying about him if _that_ got out. NJPW would definitely stop booking him, G1 or not.

Scurll’s jaw had dropped. “That must be costing you a fortune, mate.”

Kota shrugged.

“I want in.” Kota raised his eyebrows. “Tell me what I need to do. Send me bills, I don’t care. ‘Least I could say I was doing something then, I’m dying slow right now.”

“Partners,” Kota said, attempting to shake his hand to seal the deal and smiling when Scurll insisted on too sweeting him instead.

“God, it feels so good to talk about any of this.” Scurll was leaned back against the wall now, studying Kota. “Look, I hope you don’t mind me asking but….” Kota waved for him to continue on. “I know Kenny has his own…ideas on how everything happened with you two but if I were you I don’t know if I’d be doing all this.”

“We are complicated.”

Scurll shook his head. “There’s complicated and there’s ‘screwed me out of the title.’ Me, I think I’d hold that grudge.”

Kota hadn’t let himself think about that title match for a very long time. Certainly not recently. “I was very angry,” he admitted. “But at myself,” he said, pointing to his chest. Kota let out a long breath, closing his eyes as he felt himself freezing on the top rope when he’d seen Kenny jump up on the apron beside him, the way _oh no, it’s happening_ had run through his head. He still wasn’t sure why he’d chosen that side of the ring for the moonsault, why he’d made such a point of pushing things. Maybe subconsciously he’d needed to know.

Scurll didn’t look like he was following. “We had a match. Tagging, very early. Veterans are always hard on new gaijin, you know.” Scurll’s lips twitched up at that, Kota knew he had taken his share of lumps in Super Juniors, even a privileged spot in the Bullet Club wasn’t enough to save someone from that. “Whole match, he was in the ring. Wouldn’t let me near him.” Kota wondered sometimes if that match was the genesis of that awful nightmare he kept having. “They had him in a hard submission. Very painful. He wouldn’t tap.” Kota closed his eyes, leaning his head against wall. “It was our…second time as a team. Still wanted to impress me, I think.” Kota shook his head. “Finally he broke free and the whole crowd….” Kota tried to mime a large crowd sighing in relief. “Didn’t know him. Had never seen him before. I looked around and saw they all loved him. It was…incredible.”

Kota leaned forward again, his elbows on his knees. “I knew then. Someday it would end. Would have to. Destined for more.” _I knew someday he couldn’t be only be mine anymore._ Now there was something he would never say aloud.

Kenny had known it too after a point, he’d never insulted Kota by hiding his ambition but it had never been something they’d discussed in anything more than the most general sense. Probably they should have. It had been too hard to think about how Kenny would outgrow him. He wondered sometimes if his spiral after that Dominion had happened because he’d been forced to realize it had finally happened, his part in the story was over. “I had to get away. Had to find if there was something else.”

“Well, Kenny sure pitched a fit when you showed up in the States. I wasn’t around then but Matt and Nick told me he was sure you would sign. That’s not something most people turn down. I mean, Sabre did too, but he’s….” Marty rolled his eyes instead of finishing the sentence, which got his point across very well. “Why didn’t you?”

“At the beginning, I was sure too.” Kota remembered a dinner his friends had taken him to late into the tournament when rumors that he’d had second thoughts about committing to a contract had started, a dinner he realized later had been an informal intervention. _What’s this about you not signing?_ The whole night had been a very polite but very hard sell. _What do you have left to prove in Japan? You were so unhappy. Be a part of what we’re building here. What is there left for you there?_

Shinsuke had even gotten very direct with him, in private moment when no one else could hear: _He doesn’t want you to find success where he didn’t, you know that’s all this is._

And maybe that was true. But Kenny had been _so_ upset. Kota knew him well enough to know what was bluster and what was real, or at least he’d hoped he still understood him at least that much. Maybe he still had a piece of Kenny after all. He had to know. He had to be sure. “There was something I needed to prove.” Kota sighed, raking his hands through his hair. “But now everything is different.”

Scurll looked very sympathetic for someone so proud of his villainy. “What if we find them all and he still hates you?”

“Let him hate me.” The thought that he could be hurt by something so small as Kenny just hating him anymore almost made him laugh. “I welcome him hating me. I could breathe again.” He let out a long sigh. “You’re staying in Japan?”

He nodded. “Until this is done. One way or another.”

Kota drummed his fingers against his knees. “I brought Kenny to Japan the first time. I will bring him back here now.”

“You ever regret it?” Kota looked at him, surprised. “Been finding myself wishing I’d never left England. I’d be a lot poorer and it wouldn’t change anything for them at all but at least I wouldn’t feel like this.”

Kota tried to imagine that alternate world and finally shook his head. “I would be someone else.”

Scurll nodded, then went quiet for a long time. “What if you can’t?” he said, his voice small. "What if we never find them? Then what?”

Kota blinked at the question. It didn’t make sense. Maybe his English wasn’t as good as he’d thought.

Whatever the look on his face was, it managed to make Scurll look both frightened and hopeful. “There is no ‘then’. That’s all there is.”

***

Kenny fired up the video camera and aimed it at the Bucks. “Welcome everyone to another castaway special edition of Being the Elite, episode number….” Kenny frowned. “Hey, what episode are we up to now? Eighty-nine? Are we up to that already?”

“JESUS CHRIST, how long have we been here?” Nick said, dramatically throwing his arms up to the sky. “If we have to do the one hundredth episode on this goddamned island….”

“Look,” Matt said, mugging for the camera. “Look what this place has done to my good Christian brother.”

“Okay, okay, so we’re going with episode eighty-nine,” Kenny said, getting the narration back on track. “What the _fuck_ are you two doing?”

Matt posed on top of the fallen over tree he and Nick had dragged out onto the beach alongside a pile of palm fronds and some plane debris that had washed a few days ago. “Okay, so I know the last raft experiment didn’t go exactly to plan…..”

Kenny turned the camera around. “That was episode 81, for anyone coming in late.” He refocused it back on Matt. “So the plan wasn’t it immediately falling apart and sinking? And here I thought it had worked great.”

“It was a first draft!”

“Well, second draft,” Nick cut in.

Matt shot his brother a disgusted look. “Hey, considering we have one pocket knife between us and no training….”

“Good job letting _that_ though, TSA,” Nick said.

“So considering that I think that came together pretty well!”

“Except for the sinking,” Kenny said.

“Look, you wanna get rescued in time to make a dramatic entrance at the finals or not? It’s all science. We’re doing science here.”

“Matt saw Amelia again,” Nick said, hoisting one of the branches over his shoulder.

“Oh, God.” Kenny zoomed in close on Matt’s face. “Matt, we’ve talked about this.”

“We have a connection. The two of you don’t understand.”

“She’d be, like, 140 years old, dude,” Nick said.

“Nick, who had ‘Matt goes crazy and starts hallucinating first,’ me or you?”

“This is why she only comes out of hiding for me.”

“Dude, _one hundred and forty_.”

“The island sustained her! Maybe this is the island from Lost!”

“The island on Lost had, like, fucking polar bears and a whole underground bunker and stuff. I _wish_ this was the island from Lost, all this place has are those shitty lizards I can’t catch.”

“And the pigs.”

“Yeah, the pigs are scary and we only have the knife. I’m not that hungry yet.”

“I don’t know, I’m hungry enough to watch you knife fight a pig.”

“You should get Amelia to kill one for you,” Nick said.

“You did catch that bird that one time,” Kenny said. He was so glad they’d gotten that on camera.

“I did catch that bird, that was fucking awesome.”

Kenny wondered how many more episodes they should do before figuring out a way to dress Nick up as Amelia Earhart, and also hoped Matt really was making it up for dramatic effect because he was getting alarmingly insistent about it. Nick and Matt went back to bickering over what could be generously called raft building and whose favorite survival expert had the right technique. Kenny knew it was selfish but he was so glad they’d both been on the plane with him.

He crouched down to get a better angle on whatever it was Nick was trying to do to this branch and immediately felt light-headed. He tried to shake it off but that only seemed to make it worse; his vision swam and he put the phone down rather than risk dropping it.

“Hey man, you okay?” Kenny nodded but it clearly wasn’t very convincing because they both came over. “You eat today?” Matt said. He thought it was Matt. He nodded again, forcing himself to stand. Nick grabbed his arm when he took a stutter step back but Kenny was able to shake him off and keep his balance. “You’re not lying about that again, are you?”

Kenny glared at Matt, glad his vision had cleared up enough for him to do that. “I only did that once, and it was because there wasn’t enough for all three of us.”

“And I told you if you made a habit of it I was kicking your ass.” Matt pressed the back of his hand to Kenny’s forehead. “You’re a little warm,” Matt said, all traces of joking around gone now. “You feel okay?”

Kenny nodded again and now _that_ was a lie, he’d woken up with a roaring headache but it wasn’t like there was anything any of them could do about it. He was probably a little dehydrated. They were all a little dehydrated.

“The sun’s a lot today,” Matt said, although Kenny could tell Matt didn’t really believe that or him. It had only been a few days ago when Matt had mentioned how miraculous it was no one had gotten sick yet. “Go lie down in the shade, man. Me and Nick have some stuff to finish up, then we’ll keep you company.”

“I’m fine, stop worrying.”

They both said “ _No_ ” in unison and the did make Kenny feel better. He found his way back to the camp – having to stop for breath halfway through, which he was trying very hard not to panic about – and collapsed, suddenly feeling like Elgin had tossed him through a table. None of them were running on full, Kenny reminded himself. A quick nap was all he needed.

He was very impressed with how good he was getting at lying to himself.

***

When he woke up it was full darkness and it took Kenny a few disoriented seconds to realize he’d been out at least half a day. He let his eyes adjust until he could vaguely make out Matt and Nick sleeping a few feet away; the phone was propped up against a half-full bottle of water, the knife and a mango. When he woke the phone up the note app was open and read, in all caps, EAT AND DRINK SOMETHING OR WE SUPERKICK YOU INTO THE OCEAN.

He managed to choke down half before nausea got the better of him. He picked up the phone and the water and settled in his usual spot, taking a second to catch his breath. He took a long swig from the bottle and turned on the camera, wincing at how terrible he looked. “Where did we leave off?” he said quietly, trying to find a comfortable position. “Did I ever mention that I dreamed about you again?” Kenny actually dreamed about Kota quite a bit, although he didn’t want to admit it out loud. Indulging in that spite made him feel normal. Often they were tagging and as much as he resented his subconscious resorting to that it was better than the usual nightmares about drowning. Sometimes the tag dream even interrupted the other one; two nights before he’d been trapped on the plane again, blacking out, trying to undo a seatbelt that wouldn’t come unstuck as the water closed over his head. Just when his lungs were burning so much he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold his breath any more the dream so violently lurched to him in a ring and Kota standing in the corner desperately calling for him to make the tag that it woke him up entirely. He’d been so relieved he’d woken up with tears in his eyes.

That wasn’t the dream he wanted to talk about tonight. “We were bed together and it must have been the night before an important match because you were wide awake. You always did let your nerves get the better of you.” He closed his eyes for a second, letting himself be weak enough to indulge in the memory. “You used to play with my hair,” he said, miming winding his hair around his finger. “It always woke me up but I would pretend it didn’t because…well, early on you were a little shy. And I liked it. I knew if I woke up you would stop, and later it just became something we did. I hope you can forgive that little white lie between us.” He shivered and finished off the water. “It’s not the first time I’ve dreamed that since coming here. Why would that be, I wonder? Random chance? Near death nostalgia? Or should I take it as an omen?” Kenny leaned forward, the whole body ache he’d woken up with dulling as lost himself the words. “Could it be you’ve made it to the finals after all? I hope you have, it would mean you’ve become more trustworthy in my absence.”

He took a deep, rueful breath. “It was supposed to be the two of us, Ibushi, but since it doesn’t seem like that was meant to be I’m going to ask you to make me another promise. When you win, and you had better win, I want you to use my One Winged Angel. Remind that crowd what’s missing. Make them weep for me. Jump off whatever you want before then but end the match with that.”

He shivered again, a hard, full-body one this time. He tried to tell himself it was a cold night but he was sweating too, so he knew that probably wasn’t true. “But then you should probably hurry up and find us.” Kenny wished he could keep his voice steadier than this. “I’m only being so forgiving about you leaving me here this long because I made you promise to get to the finals first. You came back for me. Prove it.”

He leaned his head back against the tree and looked at the stars, balancing the phone on his knees. “But maybe I’m wrong about that. _Maybe_ that’s all a self-centered delusion and you just missed doing the G1. Maybe I’ve been talking to myself in the dark all these nights. You didn’t think about me for a second while you were in America, you haven’t spared me more than a sad thought in passing now and your life will continue on without me.”

The stars did look remarkably golden tonight. “But I know you. I knew you the second I saw you in that first match. I knew when I made that first video you would see it even though everybody told me it would never happen and I know that you’ll see this one someday. I know that…” Kenny forced his voice back under control. “I know that you won’t leave me here.”

He laughed to himself, forcibly burying all that emotion as deep as he possibly could. “So stop disappointing me, it’s getting to be a habit with you.” He shivered again and tried to conjure back the dream where he was warm in a bed with Kota playing with his hair. Pride was for stronger times. “Take me home.”

Kenny pressed SEND on the video, watching the little loading icon spin until the expected NO SERVICE message popped up, just like all of the other times. He put his head in his hands and tried to breathe.


	4. Chapter 4

Kota _felt_ the crowd gasp when he put Okada on his shoulders. Even Okada froze when he did it and from then it was only a matter of mechanics: hook the leg. Flip the weight forward, control the momentum. The impact rattled his teeth but he couldn’t let it daze him, Okada was too good for that. He’d never endured a longer three count.

The roar of the crowd was both deafening and distant. Kota rolled off Okada and stared at the ceiling, feeling out of his body. He’d always gotten emotional with big wins but there were no tears this time. This was a win that had to happen simply because any other outcome was unthinkable and as hard as he tried Kota couldn’t feel anything but relief it was finally over.

Kota collected his case and his trophy and his congratulations before letting himself be hustled away from the crowd. It had been over a week since he’d been allowed to do any post-match interviews – _Please understand Ibushi-san, it’s upsetting people_ – so Kota took advantage of the unusual liberty to find someplace isolated and quiet.

He wondered how long he had been there before Okada found him. Kota didn’t look up as Okada sat beside him, dirtying his expensive suit. “When did you know you were going to use that on me?” he said, carefully placing his title on the floor beside him.

“It came to me.”

Okada shook his head in amazement. “They will be talking about that match for fifty years.”

Kota thought so too. Even through the haze he’d almost gotten used to living in he’d known it might be the match of his life. “I wish it hadn’t been against you.”

“So do I.”

He’d always liked Kazuchika Okada. Kota turned the case over in his hands. “I’m not planning on fighting you at Wrestle Kingdom.”

Okada surprised him by laughing. “I hope you’re right. I really do. You being right about everything you’ve said since G1 started would be the happiest day of my life, I promise you that. You manage to bring Kenny Omega to Wrestle Kingdom and I’ll give you both title shots. Both of you at the same time even, I was fighting you both tonight as it was. Nothing would make me happier than doing it for real.”

This was a much better conversation than he’d been expecting. “I’d assumed everyone had given me up as crazy.”

“Oh, they have. And maybe they’re right, I don’t know. I suppose time will tell. But I’d rather have hope in something impossible than have nothing.”

“You talk like the two of you are friends.”

Okada frowned. “I’m not sure we’re not. I think if you fight someone enough it’s inevitable. He made me better and I think that went both ways. I think that makes us friends, even if we hate each other.” He sighed. “We shouldn’t have done the tournament. It was wrong.”

“We needed to.”

“ _You_ needed to.” He tapped Kota’s briefcase. “I’ve never seen you fight the way you did all tournament. They wanted to pull you after what you did to poor Tanahashi’s arm, did you know that?”

He didn’t remember the end of that match very well. “I’d lost twice in a row, I was worried about my points. I tried to apologize.”

“That’s what I mean. You fought like you were possessed. _That’s_ what frightened people, more than anything you said, although there are plenty of people worried about that too.”

“I needed to win,” Kota admitted. “Not just because….” He let that trail off, he knew how it would sound if he put it into words. _Magical thinking_ , Scurll had called it. “I hear what people say about me. I haven’t signed, New Japan has no obligations to me, especially with how I’ve been _embarrassing_ them.” Okada’s eyes went hard at that and Kota wondered if he’d heard that remark too. “If I didn’t win, even if did well but didn’t get to the finals, I don’t think they would keep putting up with me. They’re already keeping me away from interviews if I don’t watch what I say.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Okada said, immediately dismissing it out of turn. He looked like he was about to storm off and have some very angry conversations about that, in fact. “And don’t stop talking. I like hearing it.” He looked at his watch and sighed. “I have to go.” He pushed himself up, stiff enough that it took some effort. “I’ll only ask this once, but tell me the truth: are you _sure_ about everything you’ve been saying?”

Kota stared at his dim reflection in the side of the briefcase. “As sure as I am that my heart is beating.”

Okada nodded. “Let’s see them make us both stop talking.”

***

Kenny groaned in his sleep and Nick snapped to attention. “Hey! Hey, you up?” Kenny’s eyes slowly blinked open, although it took a while for them to focus. “Kenny, you with me?”

Kenny blinked at him for a few seconds before nodding, pressing the heels of both hands into his forehead. “How long?”

“Since you’ve been awake? About six hours. Since you’ve been awake and making sense, a little longer than that.” Nick put the back of his hand to Kenny’s forehead. “Fuck, your fever’s back up.”

Kenny curled up on his side, his teeth chattering as a round of the shakes hit him and Nick ran his fingers through Kenny’s hair, at a complete loss of anything he could do to help. “Can I have some of the water?” Kenny whispered.

“Of course you can, man. You can have all of it.” Nick helped Kenny half sit up and held the bottle to his lips. Kenny managed one swallow before he pushed it away and Nick just wanted sit on him and shake him sometimes. “I said all of it.”

“You need it,” Kenny protested before forcing down some more when it was clear Nick wasn’t going to budge.

“We have enough.” This was not actually true, it hadn’t rained in three days and he and Matt were having serious talks about figuring out a way to boil the gross water in the pond. That was the last thing Kenny needed to worry about right now. “You’re running so hot we could cook off you, you need it more.”

Kenny curled up into a tighter ball, his arms hugged across his chest and eyes squeezed shut. “I know you’re hurting, I’m sorry.” Nick shifted him into his lap when he shivered again and rubbed the back of his neck. “See if you can go back to sleep, okay? Try to sleep this shit off.” Kenny’s pulse was racing so fast it felt like he’d just come from the ring. Nick didn’t know how long a person could last like this and wanted to throw up just from the thought. He’d never thought he could have worse nightmares than floating alone on that broken wing but ever since Kenny had crashed this hard he’d found out how wrong he was.

“Where _is_ he?” Kenny murmured.

“Matt’s on a food run, he’s fine. He’ll be back soon.”

Kenny was breathing so hard. “He’s making me wait on purpose.”

Nick liked hearing the venom in Kenny’s voice even if he was drifting back into not making sense land. “I don’t know who we’re talking about now but whatever you say.”

Kenny managed to groan and laugh at Nick in the same breath. “You and Matt are allowed to eat me. For the record.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Nick snapped. That joke had stopped being funny a long time ago. “All of us or none of us, you hear me?” Nick said, leaning over to hiss it right into Kenny’s ear. He remembered an interview he’d done a while back when someone had asked him if he would want to do this without Matt and his answer had been an immediate _You nuts? Of course not._ He hadn’t realized until now Kenny fell into that category too.

Matt’s hand dropped on his shoulder and Nick thought he’d jumped a foot in the air. “Hey. Sorry,” Matt said, crouching beside him. “Tag out. I’ll sit with him a while.”

“I can hear you two,” Kenny murmured.

“Hey cool, we’re back to English! Last time you were up you were talking Japanese to people who weren’t there, this is way better.”

Kenny blinked at Matt like he didn’t quite believe him and Matt took the opening to shoo Nick away. Nick walked out to the edge of the beach and sat in the surf with his knees pulled up to his chest, lasting probably a good twenty seconds before he burst into messy tears.

At least this time when Matt came up behind him Nick heard him coming. He wrapped his arms around his knees and hid his face when Matt plopped down beside him. “How is he?”

“Got a little food in him, hopefully he keeps it down his time. He’s sleeping again, so that’s good. I think the fever’s a little higher than last time but he’s not, y’know, _seeing things_ so I’m still taking it as a win.”

“He’s so sick. I don’t know what to do. What the fuck is wrong with him?”

Matt let out a long _phffffff_. “Could be any tropical bullshit disease. Malaria, dengue fever, God knows we’re all getting bit up enough for that. We’re lucky it’s not all of us.”

“You have been so fucking _solid_ through all this. I can’t get over it. You need to get, like, a _thousand_ fucking medals if we get home.”

“When we get home,” Matt said, whacking Nick on the shoulder.

“Seriously. I’m like two seconds away from a nervous breakdown and you’re a fucking rock.”

Matt let out a brittle laugh. “Trust me, once we get rescued I am going to fall apart so hard. It’s gonna be fucking spectacular, I almost can’t wait. I feel like I’m held together with duct tape and not the good kind, the shitty dollar store stuff.”

He was quiet for a long time, enough for Nick to get himself together and stare out at the surf with him. “But I’ve got my little brother here, and I’ve got my best friend, and I am not a _person_ without the two of you. So I’m gonna keep my shit together and be the big brother because there is no other way to deal with this.”

“Promise you’ll never get in a plane crash without me.”

“Oh, I’m done with planes. We can take a boat back and forth to Japan.”

“That would be a long fucking boat ride.”

“This has been a long fucking plane trip.”

Matt did have him there. “I’m so glad you’re my brother.”

Matt shrugged. “I guess you’re okay.” Nick shot him a look and Matt bumped his shoulder. “C’mon. The boss needs us to keep being Elite for him, right?” Matt gave him a hand up and Nick took a deep breath, forcing all the panic as deep down as it would go.


	5. Chapter 5

Kota gripped the top rope so tightly it dug into his hands. He hated this dream. Knowing he was dreaming never gave him control, just made him feel that much more helpless to be trapped in it.

Kenny was curled up in agony more than halfway across the ring, his face pressed against the mat. “Come on,” Kota said. “Kenny, come on.”

He managed to roll over onto his back but that was as far as he got; he shook his head once, gasping for air. _I can’t._

“You can. You can.” Kota watched his eyes start to glass over. _You’re losing him._ “Kenny.” His whole body twitched once, his head turning toward Kota’s voice without seeming to see him. Kota got on the other side of the ring post, giving himself what could be a crucial few centimeters. “Do not give up now.”

 _I can’t breathe._ His eyes were so wide.

“Fight through it. You can do that, I know you can.” He reached over as far as he could, stretching until his joints ached. “It’s not that far. It’s not. Come on.” Kenny rolled over to his stomach and tried to push himself to his knees but collapsed right away, letting out a sob of pain. He shook his head. “You can.” He was starting to pass out again. “Kenny, do you want to fight me again or not?” Kota watched him take a sharp, painful breath at that. He forced his lips into a cruel sneer, a bead of cold sweat trailing down his back. “Or do you know you won’t be able to beat me?

Kota almost laughed at the pure outrage on Kenny’s face. He managed to push himself up onto his elbows, his sweat-soaked hair plastered to his face, but he was actually _looking_ at Kota now. “You’re stronger than this. Show me that. Show me what you can do.” He managed to stretch his arm out another half a centimeter. “Now come on.”

Kota felt his heart pound against his breastbone when Kenny starting moving toward him again, dragging himself by his fingernails. “Keep looking at me,” Kota ordered when he saw pain start to crowd everything else out of Kenny’s eyes again. “Don’t look away from me.” Kenny nodded, his jaw clenched now, his eyes a little more focused as he reached one shaking hand toward Kota. _Almost_. “Keep fighting. I’m so close, don’t stop fighting now.” Kenny nodded as he stretched for the tag, the nails of his other hand digging into the canvas. Kota could almost reach him. Another millimeter. One more second.

He woke with such a sudden lurch that he tumbled out of bed to the floor. It took a few bleary seconds to realized what had happened but when he did he shouted in frustration. He’d been so _close_.

Kota sat against the wall next to the bed with his head between his knees, fighting the impulse to throw up. The dream had never been like that before, never that bad. _You’re losing him_. He shook when he remembered the pain in Kenny’s eyes, at the _fear_.

_I can’t breathe._

He was running out of time. Kota didn’t know why he was so sure about that but he felt like he couldn’t catch his breath either.

Something should be happening by now. When he’d won the G1 Kota realized he’d expected everything to fall into place like a row of dominoes, like the briefcase was a magic key. He’d felt like he’d been doing something tangible during that but now that outlet was gone and he felt like he was coming apart. “Just give me a little longer.”

Kota startled when someone knocked on his room door. “Um. Ibushi-san?” He didn’t recognize the voice. A production assistant, maybe. He knew the company had quietly assigned him minders. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.”

A few minutes later there was another knock at the door, a softer one. “You okay in there?”

Kota smiled to himself when he recognized Scurll’s accent. If anyone ever learned to harness the speed of a roster’s gossip chain he knew the world energy crisis would be over. “Come in.”

Scurll made sure the door was locked behind him and sat against the far wall, giving Kota some space. “Bad one?” Kota nodded. “You should do what I do and just not sleep. Makes it a lot easier.”

“That will not work forever.”

“I have to keep one eye open anyway, might as well make it both.” Kota could at least be grateful that no matter how terrible this all had been, at least he hadn’t needed to put up with the Bullet Club on top of it.

Kota’s text alert chimed – Kota’s heart started hammering when he heard it, because he’d set one particular contact to have a special sound. He woke the phone up and took a quick breath. MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING. NO PROMISES.

The reaction was strong enough for Scurll to notice. “Something important?”

Kota waved him over and showed him the phone, letting hope start to build when Marty’s eyes went wide. “Pack.”

***

The pilot looked exactly how Kota had pictured him, broad-shouldered with a pot belly and an enormous handlebar moustache. He was glad he’d brought Marty with him, the man spoke no Japanese and his accent made Kota feel like he’d never learned English. He caught a few words here and there: “debris pattern,” “island clusters,” “those assholes in government, they don’t know what they’re doing,” but he was relieved to let Marty take over that part, especially when the two of them launched into an indecipherable English football vs Australian football discussion. Kota had enough trouble focusing without having to hold up his end of a conversation too. Okada had promised to cover for them. Kota wondered what he’d come up with.

They were in the air for two days with little more to show for it aside from Kota’s eyes straining from trying to pick out specks of land in the blinding field of blue. Twice they landed and searched, the seaplane jostling them all when they hit the water, but both times turned out to false alarms. Day three was maintenance and refueling and Kota feeling like he was going to crawl out of his skin.

Then on the fourth day, just after dawn, Scurll latched onto his arm. “Look,” he said, pointing out the window to a small island with a green center. The pilot swooped down for a better look and Kota’s breath caught when he spotted what looked like signs people had been on the narrow beach.

“Last one had that too,” Kota said, not willing to get his hopes up again. He couldn’t take another false positive. The plane banked and another, larger section of beach came into view one that wouldn’t be swallowed by the tide, with a crude SOS and a large FUCK THE REVIVAL made from branches and driftwood.

“That’s our boys,” Scurll said, looking like he would have jumped out of the plane if the window hadn’t been there.

The Bucks were on the beach waiting when they landed, Matt reaching them first. “Holy fucking SHIT I LOVE YOU!” he said, launching himself at Scurll and knocking him into the surf. Nick had been right behind but he froze in seeming disbelief, one hand over his mouth as Kota approached him. They were both thinner and bearded but looked all right aside from that.

“Where is he?” Kota said, putting one hand on Nick’s shoulder. Nick kept looking from him to Marty to the plane and then back again, like he couldn’t believe any of it was real. Kota stepped directly into his frame of vision to break that spell. “Nick,” he said, waiting for him to focus on him. “Where is he?”

“He’s…Kenny’s okay,” he said, the words coming out in a rambling rush. “I mean, not okay-okay, he’s been real sick but he’s asleep, he’s back at the camp.” Nick put both hands over his mouth like he was trying not to cry. “I don’t believe you guys are here.”

“I wish we’d been faster,” Kota said, but he wasn’t sure Nick was processing words anymore. After he got Nick to point the direction of the camp Kota gently pushed him towards the plane and started over, his heart beating so fast he felt light-headed.

“I think he’s been talking to you,” Nick said, calling after him. Kota stopped and looked back. “He had a real bad night a few days ago and scared the shit out of us, and he kept talking Japanese. I think he was talking to you.” Kota squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds, getting his breathing under control before walking past the tree line.

Kota’s knees buckled when he finally found Kenny asleep in the shade of some large trees. Kota sat beside him, running his thumb along a new scar on Kenny’s temple. Kenny was too warm and his breathing was too fast; Kota splayed his hand against Kenny’s chest and counted his heartbeats for a few seconds. “I kept my promise,” Kota said, brushing Kenny’s tangled hair off of his face. “I made it to the finals. Where were you?”

Kenny’s eyes slowly blinked open, going wide when they focused on Kota. He felt Kenny tremble and pressed his hand back against his chest. Kenny swallowed hard once. “You took your time.”

Kota laughed. Of course that would be the first thing he would say. “You made it difficult.” He hadn’t been braced for how hearing Kenny speak Japanese for the first time in years would hit him. 

Kenny reached out and touched his arm, bringing back that phantom dream image of him reaching for the tag. “It really is me.”

Kenny swallowed again. His grip went tighter, nails digging into Kota’s arm like he still wasn’t sure.

Kota couldn’t hold back any more; he pulled Kenny to his feet and wrapped him in the biggest hug he could manage. Kenny tensed up, his arms at his side like he wasn’t sure how to do this with Kota any more. “Go back to hating me after you let me take you home.”

Kenny took two sudden, ragged breaths at that. Kota felt his arms reach up slowly at first, then Kenny folded himself against him, his arms wrapping tight around his waist and his face pressing against the curve of Kota’s neck. Kota stroked his hair, getting a better grip when he felt Kenny’s legs start to shake out from under him. “You’re not allowed to carry on about me leaving and then try to leave yourself.”

Kenny nodded. When he seemed steadier Kota took a step back, cupping his face. Kenny tried to shake his head, saying, “Don’t, I’m sick.”

Kota put one finger against his lips. “For once please don’t talk.” For second he was back in that night they’d won their first match as a team, when he’d looked at Kenny and known his life had completely changed. He remembered the surprised hitch in Kenny’s breathing when Kota had kissed him then and felt it again when he did it now. It was the second time he’d felt like he’d waited his entire life to kiss Kenny Omega. “I’m so sorry I made you wait.”

It was so rare to see him at a loss of what to say. Kenny shivered, pressing back against Kota. “I dreamed about you,” he whispered, like a confession. He was so close Kota could feel his racing heart. “Who did you beat?” 

Kota shook his head. “Okada.”

He felt Kenny smile against his neck. “Good.”

“We’re going to get you taken care of, and then you can watch it.” Kota took a deep breath. “The plane is by the beach. Can you walk?” 

“Wait, wait,” Kenny said, needing to catch his breath. “There’s a phone, I…it’s important.”

He certainly sounded like it was important. Kota put him down and searched for it, then slid it into his pocket. “Okay, I have it.” He hauled Kenny back up, surprised when Kenny wrapped him up again.

“Admit that you came back _for me_.”

Kota closed his eyes. A paranoid part of his mind wondered if there was any way Kenny could have engineered this whole situation to force that answer. “Of course I did,” he said into Kenny’s ear. Kenny nodded against his shoulder, one hand gripping tight in Kota’s hair when Kota kissed him again. “We can talk about this later,” he said, although he knew they wouldn’t. Knowing there could be a later was enough. He shifted Kenny’s weight so his arm was draped over his shoulders; just because Kenny insisted he could walk didn’t mean Kota believed him.

Kota heard footsteps coming and looked up in time to see Scurll come out of the brush, stopping short with such overwhelmed relief that Kota thought he might have to be carried out too. “Sorry, I couldn’t wait. I had to see.”

Kenny’s face lit up with delight as he grabbed him in a one-armed hug. “Is everyone here?” Kenny said, sounding a little dazed by it all.

Scurll caught Kota’s eye for a second. “Um. About that….”

“You’re going to have to win back your Club.”

“I have my Club,” Kenny murmured, leaning more of his weight on Kota’s shoulders.

“He helped me find you. We’re friends now,” Kota said, wanting to laugh at how Kenny frowned as he tried to puzzle out how that could have happened.

“I don’t like that.”

“Don’t terrify us out of our minds, then,” Scurll said. “Makes for strange bedfellows.” He gave Kota a _You have him?_ look, backing off when Kota nodded. “We’ve got the boys loaded up already, your pilot’s anxious to leave.”

He wasn’t the only one. Kota kissed Kenny’s temple. “You heard him. Time to get us home.”

***

Kota watched the ocean speed by beneath them, Kenny sprawled in his lap. “We got three hours ‘til we hit Japan,” the pilot shouted back, and Kota focused hard to understand him. “That okay?”

Kota nodded. “I think so.” His first anxious instinct was to stop on the first island big enough to have a hospital on it but Kenny was sleeping soundly and seemed all right enough, considering. He didn’t want Kenny to wake up anywhere but back in Japan.

“You want me to turn on the wi-fi?”

Kota nodded. He took out his phone and turned on the livestream, angling to get not only Kenny in frame but Matt and Nick sleeping piled next to Scurll. “I told you all,” Kota said into the camera, letting himself really smile for the first time in weeks as giddy relief finally started hitting him. “For weeks, I tried to tell everyone. We will see you soon.” He zoomed the camera in so it was just him and Kenny, taking care to pronounce the English carefully. “Good bye and good night.”

He shut it off and leaned his head back against the seat. The phone in his pocket started to buzz and suddenly a stream of video notifications hit his own phone, one after another. Puzzled, Kota opened the first one and saw Kenny staring back at him, looking shaken and trying to hide it. _I know we’ve already talked tonight, but that video was for the world and this one is only for you._

Kota settled back to watch, winding Kenny’s curls around his fingers.


End file.
